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THE RECOGNITION OF HATTI AND LIBERIA. 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

DELIVERED 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



June 



1862. 



The SPEAKER having stated the question 
i order to be Senate bill No. 184, to au- 
lorize the President of the United States to 
ppoint diplomatic representatives "to the re- 
ublics of Hayti and Liberia, respectively, on 
hich the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
^elley] was entitled to the floor — 
Mr. KELLEY said : 

Mr. Speaker: When I obtained the floor 
^sterday, at the conclusion of my colleague's 
Mr. Biddle] remarks, I was about to observe 
iat the friends of the Administration are fre- 
aently charged with obtruding what is called 
ie negro question upon the House and coun- 
y, and that it seemed to be a fitting occasion 
< indicate to his and my constituents how, 
jrtinently or impertinently, that question does 
•metimes get before us. The bill under special 
msideration is a bill to establish proper interna- 
Dnal relations between the United States and 
io great and rapidly-growing republics. It 
ight be entitled a bill to increase our foreign 
immerce and protect it against discriminat- 
g regulations, duties, and taxes ; or a bill to 
ocure for our factories and workshops cheap 
id adequate supplies of raw materials from 
opical countries, and to secure for our farm- 
s, workingmen, and other citizens, sugar, 
>ffee, and all other tropical coniraodilu.j at 
st cost, direct from the country of their pro- 
• iction, in American vessels, and at prices 
)t enhanced by the profits of the English 
erchant, and duties paid into the exchequer 
an envious and powerful commercial rival. 
The bill «omes to us from the Senate, having 
e sanction of that body, and the recommen- 
.tion of the President, expressed in his an- 
lal message. The distinguished Senator from 
assachusetts, [Mr. SckkebJ iu presenting 
s argument in its support, let no sentence fall 
)m which his auditors could tell whether tha 



people of these republics were of the Cauca- 
sian, the Basque, the Indian, or African race. 
It was an international question, and he dis- 
cussed it as such. IPs remarks were free from 
reference to the origin of the people of the re- 
i publics to which they had reference, or to the 
: people otherwise than in their commercial and 
I national character. The gentleman from Maa- 
I sachusetts [Mr. Gooeii,] who called up the bill 
I yesterday, and spoke in favor of its passage, 
[ treated it as closely as possible in like manner. 
I But the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Cox] and 
I my colleague [Mr. Bihdle] failed to follow 
! these admirable examples, but spoke two whole 
i hours, not in controverting the wisdom or 
i tice of the bill, but in showing — to borrow an 
elegant phrase, the paternity of which, I think, 
i belongs to their side of the House — that there 
' was " a nigger iu the wood pile." We, who 
know so well the purity of the patriotism of 
these gentlemen, and the elevation of their tone 
and character, cannot suspect them of such a 
I motive ; but I fear that strangers who may 
have chanced to hear them may have fallen 
'into the unjust suspicion that they perverted 
! the occasion to party purposes, by attempting 
to excite the prejudices. of ihe vulgar and ig- 
norant against the Adminietration and its 
friends, by deriding, scouiug at, and ridiculing 
the people of these republics, and exhausting 
their wit and sarci>..m upon that portion of 
j God's American family which our unjust and 
unchristian laws have doomed to poverty and 
■ ignorance. 

The uninfocmed may, I repeat, misconceive 
the object cf the gentlemen in assailing tho 
bill as th.y have done; in assening that all 
, that its friends desire to accomplish by its pas- 
sage ia to give dignity to black republics ; and 
that its sole object is to promote and produce 
I negro equality at theexpeuseof the white mau, 



'•• U>£*( ; £? 



by bringing a black minister or two to reside 
near our Government, and they may possibly 
suspect them of a desire to inflame the igno- 
rant and prejudiced against the Administration, 
its friends, and policy, increase the irritation of 
the border States, and if possible add to the 
intensity of the hatred of the rebels in arms. 
But be this as it may, they are responsible for 
having thrust the irritating question into the 
discussion of this bill, so free from any connec- 
tion therewith. Sir, there was a time when for 
the learned and powerful to serve as eyes to 
the blind and feet to the lame was to deserve 
and secure the commendation of all good men. 
There are still some States in which such is the 
case; but within their jurisdiction, they who 
fashioned and decreed the platforms of the last 
Charleston and Baltimore conventions reversed 
all that. Such conduct is in their judgment 
Quixotic, and indicates the taint of unconstitu- 
tional humanity. 

The gentletnan from Ohio, [Mr. Cox,] acting 
under the new code, indulged himself in pa- 
rading before the House the squalor and igno- 
rance of the recently-escaped slaves around us 
as a fair portraiture of the condition of the 
negro race. He drew a melancholy picture. 
But how he enjoyed it, and with what evident 
satisfaction he added each sombre tint ! The 
gusto with which he completed the work gave 
some indication of how jolly he would be, could 
he join a ring in derisive dance around some 
ulcerous Lazarus or blind Samson fallen by the 
way side. And, then, his other picture of the 
negro official in shoe-buckles, knee breeches, 

fold lace, and bag wig. It was so funny ! True 
did not hear the roars of laughter that should 
have followed it ; but I am quite sure that if 
there was any such person as the elder Mr. 
Weller in the galleries, the effort to suppress 
his laughter must have brought him well nigh 
to apoplexy. 

My colleague, less mirthful, more grave and 
philosophical, gave us his statement of the 
causes of the rebellion ; and his constituents 
and mine, who live upon opposite sides of the 
street, will be a little surprised to discover that 
the South had no hand at all in bringing about 
the present rebellion. I read in the Intelligen- 
cer this morning, for the Globe does not furn- 
ish me with the remarks of either of the gentle- 
men, my colleague's enumeration of the causes 
of the rebellion, and I cannot find there that 
any southern man was guilty of favoring or 
doing anything to produce this grandest of all 
crimes. I think his constituents and mine, as 
they talk to each other across the street that 
divides our districts, will be a little surprised 
to discover that it was not the southern States 
that determined to destroy the Union and at- 
tempted to secede, that it was not southern 
men who fired upon the national flag, and that 
it was not southern men who seized the arms 
S(,nd power of the country, binding by oath to* 



peace such of our soliiers as they could seize 
and did not massacre. Our constituents are 
not under the impression that the rebellion was 
necessary or was intended to resist northern 
aggression, for no aggression upon the South 
was attempted or intended by the people of the 
North. They believe that the people of the 
North, to whom freedom and the right of the 
laborer to wages are endeared by immemorial 
usage, resisted wisely and well the unholy at- 
tempt, as I have before said, to make, slavery 
the law of our broad territories and to domes- 
ticate the institution in all the States, and es- 
pecially around Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill, 
by enigmatical legislation and judicial chican- 
ery, and that the rebellion is but the predeter- 
mined consequence of the defeat of the wicked 
conspiracy to bring about these unconstitution- 
al, inhuman, and barbarous results. 

Summing up the results of our legislation, 
he accomplishes the work by a single excla- 
mation. Says he, " yes, we have achieved 
freedom for the twenty-nine slaves in Utah, 
and for the twenty-four slaves in New Mexico, 
and for the cooks and chambermaids in this 
District." 

Great God ! is the vision of my colleague 
so contracted that he can see no other results 
than these flowing from our legislation? Have 
we not dedicated to freedom all the broad terri- 
tories of our country ? Have we not settled, aye, 
settled forever, that question which has kept the 
nation boiling with agitation for the last thirty 
years ? Throughout countless generations, the 
millions of men who will people those immense 
territories, and who will not probably even 
hear our humble names, will bless this Con- 
gress and Abraham Lincoln for the great 
work already done by it and his Administra- 
tion. Yes, we have freed the cooks and cham- 
bermaids in this District, and my colleague 
might have spoken of even humbler occu- 
pations in which some of the poor creatures 
were engaged. They were chattels all, but are 
men and women, and may now, through our 
agency, under God's guidance, without fear of 
the slave-dealer or woman-whipper, rear their 
children about their knees, and teach them 
to honor their father and mother, in the hope 
that their days may be long in the land which 
the Lord their God, through us, His instru- 
ments, has given them. 

Thus much we have done. I will not tell my 
colleague what we have not done, but which 
those who have a right to be heard think we 
ought to do. I will, however, leave a Demo- 
cratic leader of Philadelphia to say a few words • 
to him on that subject. I will take the liberty 
of reading to him and the House a letter I re- 
ceived yesterday from the camp before Chicka- 
hominy. Whether the writer of that letter is 
now at the head of his gallant regiment, or 
whether he died in the conflict of Saturday 
and Sunday, I know not. I hope he yet lives ; 



&$^\ 






but if he was among the victims of that terri- 
ble conflict, those who mourn him will see that 
his last testimony was honorable, patriotic, and 
humane. The letter is from one who has shared 
the honors of many a political field with my 
colleague, laboring with him on the stump, and 
marching shoulderto shoulder with him in many 
a hotly-contested political campaign. He is 
a tried and gallant soldier, who, having served 
three months and been honorably mustered out 
of service, organized and led to the field under 
the lamented Baker another regiment; a native, 
1 believe, of the same beautiful island, and a 
worshipper at the same ancient altar with him 
who still pines in a southern jail because he 
led the New York sixty-ninth so gallantly at 
Bull Run. His regiment is the sixty-ninth 
Pennsylvania, and was so numbered because 
the gallantry of his countrymen from New 
York had endeared the number to him and his 
men. In October last, at our State election, 
his regiment, under his lead, voted unanimously 
for my colleague's coadjutors in the Democratic 
party of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. But 
enough of preface : let the gallant soldier and 
life-long Democrat, Colonel Joshua T. Owens, 
speak for himself, and tell my colleague and 
us what we have not done, which he thinks we 
ought to do : 

Camp near Trre CmCKAHOHrirr, 
Virginia, May 25, 1862; 

Mr Dear .Trnc.E : * * * * We, who are in 
the field, are often disheartened by the ill-advised and traifrJ 
speeches of mere politicians in Congress. For God's 
sake lash them when you have the opportunity. The man 
who, at this mototento s crisis of the country, bondesc inds 
to prostitute his oilieial position to the making of capital for 
future party use is a traitor or a fool. 

Let Mr. pass, as I have, through most of Virginia, 

and listen to those even who sly;.' themselves Union 
ana even he would be disgusted with the deep-scatud cor- 
ruptions of these deluded people. There are np patriots in 
Virginia, and there have been, none since Bull Run w I 
•''rah only; and evei 
only while the Federal arm j is iu their neighborhood. They 

i l-thirsty, and bo i tTul, and lb 
duct, in shooting down our pickets, and insulting our I 
wherever we have our priees for 

thing we bay of them, and even Chen selling to us 
with i has so infused a spirit of hatred into our 

men and officers, thai toe 

orable rould be disastrous 

oops. I am not at all plo ujrfd w itb 
itary life, and would ^ of all things, liko to go back b 
i 
the punishment justly duo them, I would re- 
main in thei army and fight on without the hope of promo- 
tion until 1 was gray and pinto an honorable 

grave. 

They must We made to sue for peaooand lay down their 
Choir Jeadera must bo given up to th" halter, and 

•<>. As 

ig that, Frank Hi ur's great S] oh In- 

. i think. Or idual 
tmancinali ri, coupU ' wUh colonization, must b 

tn no, cripple theslavc power 

[eluding from .or under the Government 

irvod in any capacity in ibe rebel army. 

Much or little as we may have done, this let- 
tor shows that there are some things which this 
gallant Democratic soldier and his eompn; 
in arms think we oughtyet to do. The wisdom 
of his suggestions may not be apparent to my 
colleague and whether we regard them or uo 



/^7- 



may be unimportant. God's providence will 
be worked out. Mercy and justice are His 
attributes. And we may not resist their influ- 
ence without bringing upon ourselves crises 
more or less general and severe in proportion 
to the power and persistence of our resistance 
to His will. In His ways alone may nations or 
individuals hope to find paths of pleasantness 
and peace. 

The gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Com.] while 
sneering at the negro race, denies the accuracy 
of official statements, and says the gentleman 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Goocii] exaggerates 
the exports of Hayti. He does not, however, 
correct the statistics of our own and for 
Governments, but passes them by with a simple 
denial. But be it as he says — which it is not — 
is not Hayti as large as Ireland ? Is it not the 
most beautiful, salubrious, and prolific of the 
tropical isles ? Is it not capable of maintain- 
ing eight millions of people ? Has it not now 
a population of seven hundred thousand ; and 
does it not unquestionably stand higher than 
Russia in its commercial relations with our 
country? 

If its statistics have been somewhat exagger- 
ated, we may be assured they will seem poo- 
and paltry enough when compared with what 
they will be ten years hence. Our more intel- 
ligent freed men are flocking thither to become 
citizens and enjoy the rights of man. The 
non-consuming and, consequently, lis 
American slave is thus transformed into the 
Haytien planter, raising on his own farm, the 
free grant of an enlightened Government, the 
luscious fruits of the tropics, with such staples 
as cotton, coffee, cocoa, sugar, rice, arrow- 
root, indigo, ginger, and scores of other ar- 
ticles, which, through the Haytien merchant, 
black as himself, he will exchange for the 
products of our factories, forges, and work- 
shops. Pass this bill, secure to our commerce 
equal chances in her ports, and the swelling 
tide of agricultural emigration to ITnyti from 
our own shores will make her the munificent 
patron of our manufacturers and mechanics, 
especially those engaged in the production of 
agricultural tools an<J machinery. 

The bill, sir, is of great national interest, 
and the suggestions in its favor are not an- 
swered by sneers at that race, the creation of 
which by the Almighty is evidently regarded 
by the gentleman from Ohio as a grand mis- 
take. 

Mr colleague [Mr. Biddle] spoke of this 
country as being " 'be sick man" of the west- 
ern hemisphere. The sick man of the western 
hemisphere! His own country, the land of his 
I fathers and his posterity, the sick man of the 
western hemisphere ! A country with six hun- 
dred thousand men in the field, cloth'- 1, 
land paid as soldiers never w — six 

hundred thousand men, the children of the 
{•ruudest and poorest of the land, the poor man 



often in command, the proud man's sons often 
serving under him, illustrating to all time the 
beautiful effect of democratic republicanism ! 
A nation involved in war on such a scale with 
its owa people, aud while its armies are moving 
steadily on to final victory, maintaining its 
order and dignity in the face of the world, and 
putting its credit so high that its irredeemable 
paper brings a premium in the markets of the 
world, to be characterized as the sick man of 
a hemisphere I Had this slander been uttered 
by a foreigner, how would our countrymen 
denounce him I The country, sir, is giving to- 
day an illustration to ihe world of a healthy 
vigor and power such as history does not record. 

My colleague is somewhat given to erratic 
sayings. I remember that, after having been 
invited by a Republican Governor to accept 
the colonelcy of a regiment, and by our Repub- 
lican President to assume the rank of brigadier 
general, he spoke of the war as a Black Repub- 
lican job. It was, I am sure, in a heated mo- 
ment that he did it. 

When warmed by the enthusiasm of early 
manhood, he tendered his life to his country, 
and, under the leadership of the grand old 
commander-in-chief, won rank and honor on 
the hardest fought fields of Mexico — yet has 
he told his people that that honored general 
had entrusted the reins of this war to politi- 
cians and " able editors " till they nearly upset 
the coach. 

Mr. BIDDLE. In reference to whatever I 
may have had occasion to say upon this floor, 
those who listened to me, and those who may 
hereafter read what I said, will be able to judge 
how far my colleague justly appreciates my re- 
marks. 

If, in discussing the propriety of admitting 
the colonies of Hayti and Liberia to diplomatic 
intercourse in this country, he proposes to go 
back to some period remote from the present, 
when I was not sitting as a member in this 
Congress, to introduce to this body some pro- 
duction of mine which he is about to criticize, 
I suggest, as a point of parliamentary proprie- 
ty, that he should first send to the Clerk's desk 
the document in question, and have it read. 
Then I shall not have the least objection to 
any criticism upon it to which the House may 
see proper at the present time to listen. I shall 
be perfectly satisfied if what I have written 
shall be thus heard. If the gentleman does 
not wish to have the time consumed in reading 
it, let him embody it in his remarks and have 
it printed in the Globe. If I understand the 
matter, the gentleman is alluding to a letter 
written 

Mr. KELLEY. I will send the document 
to the Clerk's desk, but not to be read as a part 
of my speech. I cannot spare the time for that, 
happy as I would be to oblige my colleague. 
I must object to all further abstraction of my 
time. If the House will indulge me to the'es c 



tent of allowing the time which I may yield to 
gentlemen, I will gladly yield to any, but if I 
am thereby to lose time I cannot. 

Mr. BIDDLE. Then, I rise to a question 
of order. This is a bill for the admission of 
Hayti and Liberia to diplomatic relationship, 
and it is not in order to discuss the letter in 
question. I look back to few things with as 
much satisfaction as the writing of the letter 
to which the gentleman alludes. But my point 
of order is, that in discussing a bill which re- 
lates to Hayti and Liberia, it is not in order to 
comment upon a letter written by an individual 
member of this House before he took his seat, 
and which it is assumed has no relation to 
Hayti and Liberia. 

The SPEAKER. The Chair sustains the 
point of order. 

Mr. BIDDLE. I then withdraw the point 
of order, if my colleague will allow the docu- 
ment to which I suppose he refers to be read. 

Mr. KELLEY. I will not allow it to be 
read in my time ; but will not refer further to 
the letter. 

Mr. BIDDLE. I have no possible objection, 
if my colleague will allow it to be read. 

Mr. KELLEY. No, sir ; I repeat I will not 
allow it to be read in my time. My colleague 
was right in supposing I referred to a letter 
written by him ; and if I have fallen into error 
in alluding to it, he will bear witness that I 
have been misled by his own examples. So 
little relation had his remarks of yesterday to 
the bill, that the point of order he now raises 
would have excluded nearly all he said. And 
in the speech which he made on the 6th of 
March, in which he so felicitously interwove 
the pet phrase of the Mexican greaser and the 
bar-room lounger of our region with the mag- 
nificent rhetoric of Chatham and Sumner, he 
said : 

" An eminent member of the dominant party has promul- 
gated his scheme for carrjnng on this war. He has promul- 
gated it in many essays and speeches, to one of which par- 
liamentary usage permits me to refer, since it was not made 
in his place in the Senate." 

And as the gentleman's letter had not been 
promulgated in the Senate, I was under the 
impression that parliamentary usage would per- 
mit me to refer to it in the House. 

Mr. BIDDLE. I do not object. I place it 
perfectly at my colleague's disposal. 

Mr. KELLEY. Mr. Speaker, as my col- 
league seems to be somewhat sensitive on this 
subject, I will, lest I may have misrepresented 
him, cite the brief paragraph of the letter to 
which I have referred, and make no further ref- 
erence to the subject. I would not, for any 
consideration, disturb the pleasant relations 
that exist between us : 

" When the national flag was struck down at Charleston 
and the national capital was threatened by secession, tho 
North rose like one man. The world saw with astonish- 
ment the great uprising of the people ; Europe prejudged 
the issue in our favor ; yet, as if smitten with blindness, 
the Kepublican leaders seemed striviug to waste and dissi- 



/2-$ 



pate, instead of to seize and use,. the noble material for 
great armies which was, with scarcely any limit, p aced at 
their disposal. The soldier who offered himself for the pub- 
lic service found that he must ear- wig some politician be- 
fore ho could be allowed the privilege to fight or die for his 
country. Men began to say that the war was to be made 
1 a Black Republican job.' 

" Politicians were put at the head of troops— politicians 
who thought that to wear lace and feathers, and to pocket 
pay, was the whole duty of the officer ; feasting and trol- 
licking and speech-making took the place of training ana 
discipline ; and while the officer spouted and revelled, the 
rank and file were robbed of their first right — the right to 
skilful guidance and instruction. The reins were nomi 
nally put into the hands of a venerable chieftain ; but every 
politician, every ' able editor,' took a pull at thorn, till they 
upset the coach. 

" Amid shouts of ' On to Richmond,' the North, with its 
teeming population, found itself outnumbered at every point 
of conflict, and the battle of Bull Run proved that the Ad- 
ministration had known neither its own strength nor the 
enemy's. ' Where, then, were our legions?' we may well 
ask of it. But the battle of Bull Run was not without its 
fruits for us." 

When interrupted, Mr. Speaker, I was about 
to say that, regardless of the warnings of 
would-be Cassandras,I hoped to see our coun- 
try rise high above her present exalted posi- 
tion ; that I desire see her become the patron 
of feeble nations, and by her justice and gen- 
erosity make her power and grandeur glorious 
in history as the glowing hearts of grateful 
ages can depict them. 

The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Cox] denied 
that the negro had any faculty for commerce. 
Sir, the hardy enterprise of our whalers is the 
theme of glowing eulogy in English and Ameri- 
can literature and eloquence, yet Great Britain, 
in the single year of 1860, received from the 
little republic of Liberia not less than forty 
thousand two hundred and sixteen tons of 
palm oil, worth more, as I shall hereafter show, 
than the whole whale oil product cf the most fa- 
vorable years. The exports of that little repub 
lie — planted by us in the equatorial region of 
Africa, and near the mouth of the Niger — to 
Great Britain, in the first six months of 1860, 
amounted to no less than $3,056,116, beiDg a 
gain of forty per cent, over the corresponding 
period of 1858. The crop of Liberia in 1860 
was more than one hundred per cent, advance 
upon the crop of the same country for 1859. 
Sir, who are producing these grand national 
results, and making such wonderful progress ? 
People sent from this country since 1827 ; sent, 
hence fresh from slavery, the subjects of the 
degradation, ignorance, and improvidence its 
essential laws inflict upon its victims. 

For the last fifteen years, although they num- 
ber only some ten thousand American emi- 
grants and about five thousand civilized and 
christianized native Africans, they have main- 
tained an independent Government, modeled 
on our own, with an executive, legislative, and 
judicial department, each independent in its 
sphere, and co-ordiuate with each other. Our 
decisions are quoted in their courts, our lan- 
guage taught in their schools, and the word of 
the God we worship made known to them in 
their churches from King James and Qouay 



Bibles as in our own. Civil equality and reli- 
gious freedom prevail among them ; their 
schools, colleges, and churches are prosperous, 
and have been largely instrumental in enabling 
them to extend their jurisdiction over and as- 
similate several hundred thousands of docile but 
aspiring heathens. 

It is a fact worthy of note that when the site 
was purchased for the New Jersey colony, the 
last purchase of which I have knowledge, the 
chiefs who ceded the land insisted upon one 
stipulation as the most important element of 
price. It was, that they and their people should 
be guarantied the right to attend the churches 
of the colonists, and their children have admis- 
sion to their Sunday and day schools on the 
same terms as those of colonists. 

There, sir, is a republic which has grown as 
the American colonies did not grow. Our fa- 
thers had a savage and hostile people to con- 
tend with, and they almost ^extirpated there. 
The Liberians find a loving but degraded peo- 
ple to absorb and elevate. Thus, year by year, 
the limits and influence of that republic have 
been extended, and they will continue to ex- 
tend until those who legislate in this Hall a 
few generations hence will find their commer- 
cial relations with the republic of Liberia 
grown to a magnitude and importance equal- 
ing those of the leading nations of the world. 
They are an agricultural people ; they give us 
the products of the tropics — coffee, sugar, spi- 
ces — I speak now of both Liberia and Hayti — 
lignumvitaa, palmwood, and such dye stuffs as 
the wc-M has never produced— stuffs for dyes 
that nei.aer light nor acid will affect. 

In 1849, Commodore Foote was ordered to 
the African coast. I hold in my hand a book 
which he published, containing his African ob- 
servations made in 1850-51. He often dwells 
upon the young republic of Liberia. He does 
not agree with the gentleman from Ohio that 
the negro has no fitness for commerce. 

Mr. COX. Will the gentleman allow me to 
interrupt him ? 

Mr. KELLEY. I will be glad to hear the 
gentleman when I shall have finished, but I 
cannot yield to him if his remarks are to be de- 
ducted from the time I am entitled to ocoupy. 

Mr. COX. The gentleman misrepresents 
me. I said nothing of the kind. 

Mr. KELLEY. I so noted the gentleman 
at the time. 

Mr. COX. On the contrary, I argued 

The SPEAKER. Does the geutleman from 
Pennsylvania yield the floor? 

Mr. KELLEY. No, sir; I do not. I will 
gladly be corrected if I have not stated the po- 
sition assumed by the gentleman correctly, but 
as my time is passing rapidly, I cannot now 
yield to the gentleman even for that purpose. 
Commodore Foote says : 

"It is impossible to say how lucrative this (Liberiau) 
commerce may ultimately become. That the whole African 



coast should assume the aspect of Liberia is, perhaps, not 
an unreasonable expectation. That Liberia will continue to 
grow in wealth and influence, is not improbable. There is 
intelligence among its people, and wisdom and energy in 
its councils. There is no reason to believe that this will not 
continue. Its position makes it an agricultural community. 
Other lands must afford its manufactures and its traders. 
There will, therefore, ever bo on its shores a fair held for 
American enterprise. 

" The reduction or annihilation of the slave trade is open- 
ing the whole of these vant regions to science and legal com- 
merce. Lut America take her right share in them. It is 
throwing wide the portals of the continent, for the entrance 
of Christian civilization. Le*. our country exert its full pro- 
portion of this influence, and thus recompense to Africa the 
wrongs inflicted upnn her people, in which, hitherto, all na- 
tions have participated." — Africa and the American Flag, 
pp. 389, 3G0 

Speaking of the dyes of this Republic, it 
should be borne in mind that as a manufactur- 
ing people we are large consumers of dye stuffs, 
upon the quality of which our successful com- 
petition with other nations often depends, and 
that we are now compelled to procure them 
from these Republics through the medium of 
England, paying tribute to her and receiving 
from her the dregs, her people using the best. 
On this and kindred topics let Commodore Foote 
also be heard : 

"The vegetable articles of export are of great value. Cot- 
ton may bo produced in unlimited abundance. The African 
dye stuffs are already recognised as extensive and valuable 
articles of commerce. Indigo is used extensively by the na- 
tives. When wo recollect that the vast trade of Beugal in 
this article has been created within the memory of men still 
living, and that India possesses no natural advantages be- 
yond those of Africa, we may infer what a profusion of 
wealth might be poured rapidly over Africa by peace and 
good government. 

"Gums of various kinds constitute a branch of trade which 
may be considered as only commencing. The extensive 
employment of india-rubber- and the knowledge of gutta- 
percha, are only a few years old. Africa gives promise of 
a large supply of such articles. Its caoutchouc has already 
been introduced into the arts. It may bo long before the 
natural sources of supply found in its marshy forests can be 
exhausted. Se that as it may , when men are induced, as 
perhaps they soon will be, to substitute regular cultivation 
for the wild and more irregular modes of procuring articles 
which are becoming every day of more essential impor- 
tance, Africa may take a great share in the moans adopted 
to supply them. 

"•What maybe done in the production of sugar and coffee 
no man can tell. James McQueen, who has during a great 
part of his life devoted his attention to the condition aud 
interests of Africa, gave evidence before a committee of the 
British House of Peers, in 1850, to the following effect : 

" ' There Is scarcely any tropical production known in the 
world which does not come to perfection in Africa. There 
are many productions which are paculiarly her own. Tlie 
dye stuffs and dye woods are superior to any which are known 
in any other quarter of the world, inasmuch as they resist both 
acids and light, things which we know no other dye stuffs from 
any other parts of the world can resist. Then there is the 
article of sugar, that can be produced in every part of Africa 
to an unlimited extent. There is cotton also above all things, 
cotton of a quality so fine, it is finer, than any description 
of cotton W8 know of in the world. Common cotton in Afri- 
ca I have seen and had in my possession, which was equal 
to tho finest quality of American cotton. 

" ' Egyptian cotton is not so good as the cotton away to 
the south ; but the cotton produced in the southern parts of 
Africa is peculiarly fine. Africa is a most extraordinary 
country. In the eastern horn of Africa, which you think to 
be a desolate wilderness, there is the finest country and the 
liuost climate I know. I know of none in South America 
equal to tho climate of the country in the northeastern horn 
of Africa. It is a very elevated country, and on the upper 
regions you have all the fruits and flowers and grain of Eu- 
rope growing ; and in the valleys you have the finest fruits 
of the Torrid Zone. The whole country is covered with 
myrrh and frankincense; it is covered with flocks and herds ; 
it produces abundance of the finest grain. Near Brasa, for 
instance, on tho river Webbe, you can purchase as much 



fine wheat for a dollar as will serve a man for a year. All 
kinds of European grain flourish there. In Encreaand Kaffa 
the whole country is covered with coffee. It is the original 
country of the coffee You can purchase an ass's load (two 
hundred pounds) of coffee in the berry for about a dollar. 
The greater portion of the coffee that we receive from Mocha 
is actually African coffee, produced in that part.' " — Africa 
and the American Flag, pp. 67-70. 

Commodore Foote also answers some of the 
suggestions of my colleague [Mr. Biddle] and 
the geutleman from Ohio [Mr. Cox] as to the un- 
fitness of the negro for social, political, or com- 
mercial relations. He says, (pages 205 and 
206:) 

"A movement for the elevation of the colony into an in- 
dependent State has been made by the people at Cape 
Palmas, and a commission has visited this country to make 
arrangements for the purpose. That there bo full political 
independence granted to this people is requisite as an ele- 
ment of the great achievement now going on. This con- 
templates something far higher than creating merely a ref- 
uge for black men, or sticking on a patch of colored America 
on the coast of Africa, like an ill-assorted graft, for which 
the old stock is none the better. Liberia is the restoration 
of the African, in his highest intellectual condition, to that 
country in which his condition had become the most de- 
graded. The question is to be settled whether that condi- 
tion can be retained or so improved that he may keep pace 
with the rest of the world. 

" It is a necessary element in this proceeding, that ho b'e 
self-governing. It is to the establishment of this point that 
all men look to decide the dispute, whether negro races are 
to remain forever degraded or not. Time aud patience, 
however, and much kiud watchfulness, may be required be- 
fore this experiment be deemed conclusive. Let many fail- 
ures be anticipated ere a certain result is secured. Let no 
higher claims be made on the negro than on other races. 
Would a colony of Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portuguese, 
Sicilians, if left to themselves, offer a fairer prospect of suc- 
cess than Liberia now offers ? Few persons would have 
confidence in the stability of republican institutions among 
these races, if so placed. 

" Let then the black man be judged fairly, and not pre- 
sumed to have become all at once and by miracle of a higher 
order than old historic nations, through many generations . 
of whom the political organization of the world has been, 
slowly developing itself. There will be among them men 
who are covetous, or men who are tyranica!, or men who 
would sacrifice the pubiic interest, or any others, to their 
own ; men who would now go into the slave trade if they 
could, or rob hen-roosts, or intrigue for office, or pick-pock- 
ets, rather than trouble their heads or their hands with more 
honorable occupations. It should be remembered by vis- 
itors that such things will be found in Liberia, not because 
men are black, but because men are men." 

A word more as to the capacity of these peo- 
ple for commerce, and as to the "folly of a pol- 
icy which would prevent our merchants from 
engaging in that commerce, aud which would 
exclude our manufacturers, farmers, and me- 
chanics from enjoying its advantages. 

Sir, we need a minister at each of these 
countries. When once we have a minister res- 
ident at Hayti or Liberia, the tariff and terms 
of commercial intercourse will be regulated by 
treaty, and our merchants and manufacturers 
will not be. subject, as they now are, to dis- 
criminations against them, under which they 
suffer seriously. By the laws of these republics au 
extra duty is now levied upon the imports of 
those nations which have failed to recognise 
their independence. Give us ministers or com- 
missioners resident there, and we will then be 
on equal terms with the most favored nations. 
Let us recognise the nationality of these re- 
publics, aud cease to be the proper subjects, of 
these,, exactions. Let us, I repeat, open the 



/<LU 



way for our commerce with these countries, 
welcome their products which we need, and 
find in them markets for our manufactured 
articles. 

I now read from a letter addressed to me in 
the early part of the session, by a gentleman 
of Philadelphia, who for years has taken a pro- 
found interest in the question under consider- 
ation. I do so for the purpose of showing the 
fitness of these people for commerce and self: 
government, and the injustice of the tone with 
which the proposition before the House has 
been met : 

" Liberia is a centre of trade and commerce in Africa and 
is developing this region of the continent. The export of a 
single commodity — palm oil — from western Africa, is esti- 
mated to reach, annually, sixty thousand tons, exceeding in 
value that of a whale oil season. Great Britain received, in 
1S60, 804,325 cwts., as is shown in official returns, equal to 
40,'/16 tons. The exports of British geods to west coast of 
Africa during the first six months of I860 amounted to 
$3,056,310, being a gain of furty per cent, on the shipments 
ol the corresponding period of 1858. * The subject of African 
commerce is engaging more and more the attention of our 
merchants, and the power of Liberia will soon be felt in the 
commercial world. 

"The far-reaching policy of the British authorities and 
p eople is drawing to its ports a large and highly lucrative 
intercourse with the west coast of Africa. The proof of this 
is shown in the recent money article in the London Times, 
in noticing the half-yearly meeting of the African Steam Com- 
pany, held on the 14th day of last December. It is stated 
that ' a dividend of seven shillings per share was declared — 
being at the rate of seven per cent, per annum — free of in- 
come tax.' A reserve of seven and a half per cent, per an- 
num was likewise made for depreciation and several heavy 
losses were also met and liquidated. 

" Some forty craft, built in Liberia, and owned and manned 
by its c.tizens, trade along its sea-board and navigable riv- 
ers. Larger vessels are similarly engaged between it and 
foreign countries. Three of these, the Moses Sheppard, Day- 
light, and Euschia J. Roye, which used to visit Baltimore 
and New York, now run to Liverpool from the Liberian 
waters, in consequence of the discriminating charges im- 
posed upon them and their cargoes in our ports. France, 
Great Britain, Belgium, Prussia, Brazil, Lubec, Bremen, 
Hamburg, Portugal, and the kingdom of Italy , have acknowl- 
edged the nationality of Liberia, and it has treaties of amity 
and commerce with not only the majority of these Powers 
but with numerous others. 

. "Soon, it is hoped, the United States will recognise this 
young African State, and enter into treaty relations with it. 
Should the existing and injurious status be maintained, our 
country must lose its present share of Liberian trade, for it 
will flow where there are the least obstructions and its con- 
ductors freely welcomed instead of being repelled by bur- 
densome exactions. As yet, our shipping and products are 
admitted into Liberia on the same footing as those of the 
most friendly nations; but may not its people retaliate, and 
cause the enactment of measures which shall practically 
drive American ships and traffic from their ports, as we are 
now doing with hers f Can we well afford to do this ?" 

And shall we hesitate about recognising as 
members of the family of nations these two re- 
publics ? What reason can we give for it to 
history and to the world ? What trade or legit- 
imate interest will such an act injure or inter- 
fere with ? None. Itwill indeed break up the 
slave trade ; make Liberia powerful, and in 
this cause she will fight the nations of the world 
gallantly, as her little navy did the Spanish 
steamer that undertook to punish her for hav- 
ing searched a Spanish vessel for slaves. It 
will, I say, break up the slave trade, and shut 
out of our country further importations of what 
my colleague is so terribly afraid of, the negro. 
He will not willingly come from a land where 



he is a man to one in which he is embraced in 
the category of cattle. Nor will he, when Li- 
beria can prevent it, be brought here as our 
Democratic friends have been in the habit of 
bringing him for the last few years. It may 
be said that slaves have not been brought here 
at all. If so, let me just here make another 
little extract from the letter of my friend, Wil- 
liam Coppinger, esq. : 

"The capacity and value of Liberia to the United States 
is practically illustrated in the receipt and wise disposition, 
during the space of nine months, August 21, 1800, to May 
8, 1861, of four thousand four hundred and seventy-nine 
liberated slaves, seized in slavers by American cruisers 
and landed in that republic by direction of our Govern- 
ment. Its humanity and strength are demonstrated in the 
successful resistance made September 11, 1881, in the har- 
bor of Monrovia, to an unexpected attack made by a three- 
masted Spanish war steamer, the Ceres, which undertook 
to sink the Liberian naval vessel Quail, for capturing a sla- 
ver at Gallinas, the northern boundary of the republic ; and 
in preventing the native chiefs and head men along its in- 
terior, from Gallinas to Palmas, from participating in the 
infamous slave traffic." 

I admit that the passage of this bill will in- 
juriously affect the interest of the slave-trader, 
by cutting off the supply of slaves. It wiil also 
do much to break up one other traffic — the 
manufacture and sale of counterfeit Haytien 
dollars. As we do not recognise Hayti as a 
nation, our courts cannot punish the counter- 
feiting of her coin as a crime. When, there- 
fore, we find a counterfeit Haytien dollar in 
our pockets, we may charge it to our own act, 
for by our unwisdom and inhumanity we have 
legalized the manufacture of such counterfeit 
coin in every town in our country. The man- 
ufacture of such coin and the slave trade are 
the only interests that the passage of this bill 
can possibly affect injuriously, while those en- 
gaged in every branch of art, trade, and com- 
merce, from the man who digs iron ore from 
the earth to him who manufactures the finest 
mechanism* or the most elegant furniture or 
apparel, will feel its beneficial influence. And 
I ask again what argument can be made 
against it ? What but derision of the negro 
can be suggested as an objection ? The dis- 
tinguished gentleman from Ohio and my col- 
league shrink from personal contact with 
negroes. I would not willingly cause either of 
them pain. But suppose these republics should 
each send a colored minister, the gentleman 
cannot be much annoyed by them ; they need 
only come in contact with such official per- 
sonages for brief interviews, at long intervals, 
during the period that they shall respectively 
be President of the United States or Secretary 
of State. [Laughter.] This measure of an- 
noyance the honors that doubless await them 
may subject them to; and .1 am sure that 
they will endure it with becoming fortitude if 
assured that it will achieve great national 
good. Thus much their distinguished patriot- 
ism justifies me in promising for them. 

Our commerce, trade, manufactures, agricul- 
ture, will all feel the stimulating influence of 
this measure ; but, above all, the gentlemen on 



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015 995 893 



the Democratic side of the House will soon 
have reason to rejoice, for, under the influence 
of this bill, they will be relieved of the ghost of 
their Banquo. The negro will soon have leave 
to depart ; peace will come to their souls. Sir, 
when Liberian steamers and sailing vessels en- 
ter our ports, owned, freighted, and manned by 
Liberian citizens, and when our colored people 
observe these evidences of prosperity, and learn 
that the President is a negro, that the chief 
justice is a negro, that the judges, the legisla- 
tors, the congressmen, are negroes, and that 
the wealth and honors of the country are open 
to them and their children ; and when their 
friends bring them, as they can, such books as 
lie upon the tables of some of our members, 
the essays of that graduate of Queen's College, 
Cambridge, England, Rev. James Crummell, 
who spends an occasional hour with the barber 
in the cloak-room of the House ; when, I say, 
they see evidences of wealth, enterprise, and 
prosperity, and such native literature, coming 
from these republics, and learn, as they soon 
will, that they may there associate freely with 
men who have been the companions of princes 
in the schools of England, they will feel that 
they can no longer bear the taunts and gibes 
of the gentleman from the second district of 
Pennsylvania and from Ohio, and will escape, 
even at the cost of becoming the companions 



of such men as Crummell and Jeffrard and 
President Benson, black though they be. 

How strange a thing is the human intellect! 
To get rid of the negro is the special anxiety of 
these gentlemen, and yet they will not help to 
build up a power that will prevent more slaves 
being brought into the country ; they will not 
give dignity and character to nations that urge 
our negroes to come to them. They hate them, 
they love them, they sneer at and embrace them, 
until logic and instinct are alike at fault when 
attempting to ascertain what their views and 
wishes are upon this to them all-absorbing sub- 
ject. I am for recognising every nation that 
has power to maintain itself peaceably among 
the nations of the world, and I pray that God 
may give me grace, whenever I see a suffering 
fellow-man, to pity and to wish to serve him ; 
and as a member of the Government of this 
great nation, to be always ready, not alone 
when, as in this case, there are powerful mo- 
tives leading to it, not when dollars and cents 
lie in the way, but when it might be, which 
this cannot, an act of generous magnanimity to 
urge my country to extend its recognition and 
sympathy to feeble and struggling nations. I 
believe that it comports with the spirit of the 
age and the honor and dignity of my coun- 
try. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 



WASHINGTON t) C 

SCAMMELL & CO. PRINTERS, CORNER OF SECOND STREET AND INDIANA A«JE, THIRD FLOORj 

1862, 



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